BEFORE THE CAMPAIGN PROFESSOR TOM GUTTERIDGE

BEFORE THE CAMPAIGN

BY PROFESSORTOM GUTTERIDGE (63-70)

“When I was at RGS, it was a Direct Grant Grammar School and without that support my parents could never have sent me there. Most of my friends from that time benefitted from grants too.”

Iattended the first ON Newcastle dinner shortly after the Tony Blair government scrapped the Assisted Places scheme, it was the first time I’d been back to the school since I left in 1970*.

In his speech the Headmaster James Miller (94-08) told us about how this decision would impact the RGS. He was very worried. A substantial proportion of the school intake benefited from that scheme, which enabled bright boys from poorer backgrounds to come to the school. I was shocked by the effect it would have not just on the school, but on the North East as a whole: RGS students made such an important contribution to life in the region at every level, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if only the children of the rich flowed through in the future. When I was at RGS, it was a Direct Grant Grammar School and without that support my parents could never have sent me there. Most of my friends from that time benefitted from grants too.

After the dinner I took James aside and offered to provide bursaries for three boys for their entire 7-year schooling. In return, I had three conditions: my gifts would be anonymous; I wanted copies of all their school reports so I could see how they were getting on; finally, the RGS should establish a Bursary scheme with the aim of providing bursaries to at least 97 more children, making 100 in all. Funding would cease if the school failed to do this. James agreed.

I still have some of their school reports. One even wrote me the sweetest thankyou note when he eventually left the school for a very good university (I don’t think he ever knew my name, but I treasure the letter).

I also have a letter from James dated October 2000, enclosing the boys’ reports, where he promised that ‘raising enough money for bursaries is going to be a major objective in the next few years’. The Bursary Campaign was launched after that.

* I was with two ON friends (neither of them were actually at school with me between us we spanned 21 years at the RGS). On a whim, we had dared each other to go to the dinner — it was the first time back for all of us. We spent a wild weekend staying in the Copthorne (I know, ‘wild’ and ‘Copthorne’ are not frequently used in the same sentence), driving around our old haunts –getting misty eyed over the sight of the Long Pier at Tynemouth, the locations of our first trysts with reluctant girlfriends, –we behaved like naughty schoolboys. Paul Campbell (70-77) was one of those friends, and the trip clearly had an effect on him, for he upped sticks from London and moved his family back to Northumberland, started a business in Gateshead and became an RGS Governor. I stayed down south, went to Hollywood, and only returned to Newcastle ten years later (I’m back working in California now).